About US

Dan Falk is a 5th generation timber and cattle rancher who grew up on the Harold Richardson Ranch on the northern Sonoma Coast. Dan graduated from Humboldt State University, where he majored in Forest Production. He holds three forestryrelated licenses: Registered Professional Forester; Licensed Timber Operator, and General Engineering Contractor. He manages all forestry operations on the 8,000- acre Richardson Ranch, as well as a small mill on the property.

Dan purchased the first and only Carbonator 500 to be operated in California in 2019, which he uses to process un-merchantable biomass waste and produce biochar. He is currently blending the biochar with compost and is beginning to spred out the mixture on pasture and rangeland on the ranch, where his brother runs both cattle and sheep. Billing rates vary depending on position. Quotes for various tasks are shown in budget line items of the budge and are based on timber harvesting and staging of 2,400 tons of biomass ($120,000) and processing costs (fuel to run the Carbonator’s conveyer system and fans, labor, excavator use, water truck for safety, biochar processing, etc.) for one month: $55,000 plus $4725 for diesel fuel.

Registered Professional Forester Dan Falk in 2019 purchased a Carbonator 500 machine to process fuel reduction and logging slash materials on his family’s 8,000-acre Richardson Ranch; to date, this is the only such machine currently being operated in California. For our demonstration effort, this unit will be moved to property owned by Jackson Family Wines to process materials harvested there from the Kincade Fire. If supplemental funding is available, a second one-month demonstration will take place back at Richardson Ranch.

The demonstration project team will collect data at each location on labor and other operational costs, volumes of materials processed and biochar produced, and other operational metrics. This information will allow us to compare and contrast a range of important operational data on the cost-effectiveness of using the Carbonator 500 as a tool for large-scale forest management along with biochar production. The Carbonator is designed to efficiently process large volumes of biomass that does not have to be chipped while reducing smoke pollution. A specialized “wood screw” splits larger pieces, such as stumps and large-diameter logs, into smaller pieces that burn faster within the chamber. Airflow over the top controls emissions.

Biochar produced can be integrated back into the forest ecosystem, blended with compost and spread out on nearby rangelands, and/or used as a soil supplement in tree replanting activities to reduce mortality rates. Specific Project Goals/Objectives: this project’s goals may be summarized as follows: — demonstrate the value of using this new way to manage forest slash as opposed to chipping or burning it — document the costs of using a large air curtain burner to manage forest slash; — record visual air emissions improvements associated with using a large air curtain burner for slash management; — demonstrate the ability to use this machine to make biochar from forest slash materials within the thinned-forests themselves; and — demonstrate use of some of the biochar in the forests themselves and the rest of this material in agricultural settings outside the forest.